Shaken Awake
by The Last Letter
Summary: After Danny's identity is revealed to the world, he falls into depressed state, ignoring his duties and his friends. It takes an unexpected person to help Danny back to himself and realize who he truly wants to be.


**I was going through some old writing and realized that I had finished this piece years ago and had just never typed it up, so I thought that I should share!**

 **On tumblr I'm: we are all of legend now (with dashes between every word)!**

 **~TLL~**

"Dipstick!"

I cringed as I heard Ember's shrill voice. She was uncomfortably close to my bedroom window and I could guess what was coming next: Ember had no sense of person space or boundaries, so she'd probably come barging in through my window, demanding something that I couldn't (or wouldn't) do. It was like having another sister. Sure enough, Ember stormed in, flaming blue hair nearly reaching my ceiling. I noted the pissed off expression on her face but I was more concerned with whether or not her hair was going to burn my house down.

She cleared her throat and tapped her heavy boot against my bedroom floor. When I didn't respond, she crossed her arms over her chest and cleared her throat even more pointedly.

"What?" I sighed, flattening myself out on my mattress and concentrating on my ceiling. Ember and I didn't have conversations, we had battles. And I really wasn't up to fighting with her.

"We need to talk."

"What could we possibly have to talk about?"

"How pathetic you are," Ember snapped. "No one has seen you in two weeks and, from the smell of this place, it looks like you've spent _all_ of them in bed! What is wrong with you?!"

Instead of answering, I rolled over and said, "You sound like my mother."

"Somebody needs to if you've been decomposing in bed for weeks."

"There's nothing wrong with staying in bed," I muttered into my pillow.

Ember groaned. "Where are your parents? Don't you have a sister? Why is no one yelling at you?!"

Her voice rose with every word until she was screaming in my ear. I stretched out one arm blindly until my palm connected with her cold cheek. Immediately after my feeble hit, Ember snatched my wrist in her hand and bent my arm behind my back. She straddled my lower back so that I was effectively pinned which, in my opinion, was seriously unnecessary. I wasn't going to fight her.

"No, really," Ember pushed. "Why are you moping? And why has everyone been letting you mope?"

"I'm not moping," I argued. "And no one needs me. I'm gonna stay in bed until I die and no one is gonna notice."  
Ember, who'd been obnoxiously knocking my bent arm against my spine, froze. "You're an idiot."

"You're a ray of sunshine."

"I'm being serious!"

"So am I!" I groaned. For a ghost, Ember sure was heavy.

"Do you honestly think that people don't need you?" she asked, her voice sounding as serious as she claimed to be.

"Of course, they don't!" I exploded, flipping her off of me with ease. I rolled into a sitting position, facing Ember, who was at the bottom of the bed, putting herself upright herself. "Why would anyone need _me_? Everyday that I'm out there I'm putting people I love in danger. My girlfriend was _shot_ with an ecto-blast; my best friend was almost _crushed to death_ because I wasn't paying close enough attention to him; and my family … my family were already targets, simply because of what their profession is. But, now that everyone knows that I have two identities, now that the entire world knows that I'm part ghost, they're in even more danger. It's not just vengeful ghosts going after them, it's human scientists who want to experiment on me; it's governments who was to use me for their own military gain; it's evil madmen whose motives I don't even _want_ to know! So, don't tell me that people need me because all I do is put them in danger!"

Ember shook her head, flaming blue hair wavering with the slight movement. With an accusing tone, she said, "You really are an idiot."

"Why are you here?" I shouted, my anger breaking over me in waves. "Leave me alone!"

"I'm here to talk to you!"

"I don't need talk to!" I roared back at her. "Especially not from some ghost who always seems to be attacking me."

"I'm clearly _not_ attacking you," Ember pointed out. "And you clearly need to be talk to."

"Whatever, Ember," I sighed grumpily, keeling over to the side and attempting to bury myself back under my blanket.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Ember exclaimed. She seized me by my shoulder, throwing me onto my bedroom floor and forcing me to pay complete attention to her. "I am here to interrupt your ridiculously stinky pity party."

"Leave me alone," I muttered half-heartedly.

"No," Ember growled. "You wanna know why I'm here? I'm here because the world needs Phantom. I know, I can't believe it either, but you've come a long way, Dipstick. You matter to a lot of people; you've saved a lot of lives. There's a price that comes with being a hero but I'd imagine that the price of not being one is so much more." Her luminescent eyes were oddly caring as she studied me. "What happened after Sam was hit by the ecto-blast?"

"I took her to the hospital," I mumbled. "But, if it weren't for me, she wouldn't have been hurt."

"Wrong," Ember drawled, rolling her eyes. "Sam lives in Amity Park, the most haunted place in the world. She probably would have been shot anyway but you wouldn't have been there to save her. Now, why didn't Tucker get crushed to death?"

"'Cause I grabbed him and pulled him out of the way," I answered and was about to argue the same point I had with Sam – if it weren't for me, he wouldn't have been in that position to begin with.

Ember didn't give me a chance to talk. "So, you're to blame for Tucker and Sam being alive. That doesn't seem to be a terrible thing to be at fault for. And we both know you aren't to blame for your family being targets. You said it yourself: their profession made them targets. And you a target long before you were Phantom."

I sighed. "You're only seeing it the way you want to see it."

Ember paused at my accusation. "Aren't you doing the exact same thing?"

I gaped at her.

"You see, ever since the ghosts realized that you were no longer out patrolling the streets, they decided to make Amity their own personal playground. You do know what happens when ghosts decide to play, don't you?"

I gulped and nodded, images of riots, fires, and civilian injuries and causalities. An unchecked ghost was more destructive than any tornado; its destructive tendencies would overtake them until there was nothing left of the world around them. I glanced at my window. Was that the scene occurring outside my bedroom as I sat here? Were my parents leaving me be, not out of frustration, but because they were out protecting the town from vengeful ghosts?

… Speaking of ghosts, I looked at the one in front of me. "Why aren't you out playing?"

"Please," Ember scoffed. "I'm better than those that give into their petty urges."

I raised my eyebrows. She wasn't. I knew she wasn't.

"Fine! Your girlfriend gave me a combat boot to the face. Said that she wanted me to come talk to you. She said that no human could knock sense into you so a dead person might as well give it a shot."

"Sam kicked you in the face?" I snickered. I couldn't help it. And I was putting that on the list of reasons that I loved Sam. I should have been leaving my room, if only to see that happen.

"She and Tucker are out there with your parents and sister, trying to protect people.

"Sam's fighting?" Jazz was fighting. Tucker was fighting. My parents were fighting. It shouldn't have rocked me as much as it did, but I had done all that I could to keep my loved ones safe. And, though Sam had never appreciated it, she was the one that I worried about the most. She didn't possess the knowledge or skill that Mom, Dad, or even Jazz, did, and she lacked any of the physical intimidation that Tucker had gained in the past year. I knew Sam was capable but, most of the time, I thought she overestimated herself.

"What else did you expect? She's one tough chick, kid. But the ghost hunters are losing," Ember continued. "The only thing that would help is if the ghost kid were to get off his butt and go kick some."

I stayed silent, trying to digest all of the tidings that Ember had delivered. I'd been so ignorant, lying here in bed and feeling sorry for myself. My friends and family had attempted to talk to me but I had ordered them away, thinking that they had wanted to talk me out of my funk. In reality, I had been needed. I had abandoned the citizens I had sworn to protect; forsaken the streets I had promised to defend. I was supposed to be Amity's hero but I'd fail.

 _No!_

I forced myself to my feet. It was time for this heroic crisis to be over. I was Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom. I helped people. And it was time for me to start doing my job again.

"Goin' ghost!" I bellowed, kickstarting my transformation.

In the middle of my change, I thought I heard Ember muttered, "Good job, Dipstick."

The rings finished altering my body, I faced Ember. I knew I owed her something. I knew I had to say something. I took a breath. "Thank you for talking some sense into me."

It wasn't something I ever thought that I would say to Ember.

Ember laughed and pulled me into an unexpected, sibling-like hug. "Aw, you still haven't got any sense, dumb-dumb!" She pulled away from me and cackled. "Now, catch me if you can!"

She phased out my window and, moments later, an explosion reached my ears. I grabbed a Fenton Thermos and an ecto-gun, springing out the window and chasing after her.

Danny Phantom was back, baby.


End file.
